Red Rock Stories: Three Generations of Writers Speak on Behalf of Utah's Public Lands

by Stephen Trimble (Editor)

"Essays and poems that run as deep as the canyons of the Colorado River."

—ROBERT REDFORD


Red Rock Stories conveys spiritual and cultural values of Utah's canyon country through essays and poems of writers whose births span seven decades. First delivered to decision makers in Washington as a limited–edition chapbook, this art–as–advocacy book explores the fierce beauty of and the dangers to ecological and archaeological integrity in this politically embattled corner of wild America.


"In the American Southwest, we dwell in one end of the visible spectrum. Passions or furies, we see it all in shades of red." —Amy Irvine


Red Rock Stories features three generations of writers from diverse cultures. Young activists and regional leaders fill the pages with heartfelt testimonies for the red rock wilderness. Notable contributors range from acclaimed writer Terry Tempest Williams and Poet Laureate of the Navajo Nation Luci Tapahonso, to Charles Wilkinson of the University of Colorado Law School and Regina Lopez–Whiteskunk of the Ute Mountain Ute Council.


STEPHEN TRIMBLE, editor of Red Rock Stories, has published more than twenty books. He received the Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for photography and conservation and a Wallace Stegner Centennial Fellowship at the University of Utah Tanner Humanities Center. In 1995, Trimble co–compiled with Terry Tempest Williams the landmark book of advocacy, Writers of the West Speak on Behalf of Utah Wilderness—the model for Red Rock Testimony. He teaches writing in the University of Utah Honors College and makes his home in Salt Lake City and in Torrey, Utah.

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, Travel

222 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

As writer, editor, and photographer, Stephen Trimble has published 25 award-winning books during 45 years of paying attention to the landscapes and peoples of the Desert West. He’s received The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for photography and conservation and a Doctor of Humane Letters from his alma mater, Colorado College. In 2019, he was honored as one of Utah’s 15 most influential artists.

Trimble speaks and writes as a conservation advocate and has taught writing at the University of Utah. He makes his home in Salt Lake City and in the redrock country of Torrey, Utah. Environmental historian James Aton has said: Trimble's books comprise one of the most well-rounded, sustained, and profound visions of people and landscape that we have ever seen in the American West.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let us please, for once in our lives, leave something alone and see if we can't find some human value in that.

This book immediately caught my eye because my own red rocks stories are still so clear in my memory - our Utah road trip in May 2016, right through this region. This geography has been a newsmaker on the national scale for a few months, since President Obama signed the executive order in December 2016 to make Bears Ears National Monument a reality, and even more recently (including this week: Creation of Bears Ears National Monument was a response to years of grave robbing), the Department of Interior's investigation and review of this and 20+ other monuments under the current administration. Also up for review: the boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante, the region (directly west of Bears Ears) that President Clinton ordered as a National Monument in 1996. It is possible that both of these designated areas (and many others) will be significantly shrunk, or possibly eliminated, in the coming days.

Red Rock Stories is a call to this action - gathering disparate voices to speak up for this high desert, for this Colorado Plateau, for these slot canyons and slickrocks, for these ancestral lands.

[Richard Tenney · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely collection of short essays that speak to our need to preserve the wild, especially in these days of utter madness and greed.

[Zack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book collecting the works from writers of all walks to speak up for the Bears Ears. This was created in the same vein as Testimony: Writers of the West Speak on Behalf of Utah Wilderness, This Is Dinosaur: Echo Park Country and Its Magic Rivers, and Time and the River Flowing: Grand Canyon; writers and other artists using their craft to protect a specific landscape. Some of these pieces are really spectacular and lead to some writers that are new to me and some were old favorites.

Bears Ears was particularly contentious and is a revolutionary project in land management. Unfortunately, this book only covers up to the designation of the monument in Jan 2017 by the Obama Administration. It does not cover the downs and ups during the next two administrations.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent collection of short essays about the impact and value of Utah's public lands upon three generations of writers. Within a mere 222 beautifully designed pages, editor Stephen Trimble and Torrey House Press have captured the magic and the heartbreak of the Red Rock country.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful testament to civic engagement & the effect public lands have on our lives.